The Unique Position of the Carbon Atom in Chemistry - 1. The Nature of Organic Chemistry - 2. The Organic Chemist Looks at a Molecule - 3. Valence - 4. New Ideas on Valence - 5. The Unique Position of Carbon among the Elements - 6. The O C T E T in Chemistry - 7. The D U E T in Chemistry - 8. North and South Poles -

When Dr. Frank C. Whitmore was president of the American Chemical Society in 1938 and made the customary tour of local ACS sections, he used that occasion to spread the gospel of the electron theory of valence. At one of his lectures the author of this book sat in the audience among a mixed group of chemists consisting of technicians, students, and college graduates. The lack of familiarity of organic chemists with the electron was so obvious that it aroused in the author an urge to write an elementary introduction to organic chemistry in which the role of the electron would be emphasized.

This book is especially intended to serve two groups of readers: those engaged in work of a chemical nature who are not able to take a classroom course in organic chemistry, and those in a college course who find they have a need for a supplementary book to help clarify the approach to modern organic chemistry. In other words, the book was conceived as an integrated introduction to both electron-valence theory and organic chemistry at a level suitable for self-study.

The first edition of this book appeared in 1943 during World War II. A second edition, much enlarged, was published in 1955. For this third edition the book has been extensively rewritten, and more than enough material has been added so that it can serve as a textbook for a one-year college course. The novel arrangement of the subject matter in the earlier editions has been maintained. A teacher who prefers to lecture largely from his own notes should find no difficulty incorporating his material into the simple plan on which this book is based.